After 6 years of trying, I finally broke away for good. My elusive dream of winning a race in Holland -- where it really counts -- finally came true. I won two races in Holland, back to back, and am still pinching myself to make sure it's true. In both races I was involved in a winning breakaway, a seldom occurrence in a sport where the seething pack often swallows everything up in preparation for a massive field sprint.

I never thought I was this close to winning overseas. I fully expected to have to pay some serious dues for a few more years before reaping any big rewards. It seems only yesterday that I was getting dropped from the B races in Holland, but there I was this year, standing on the highest step of the victory podium. A victory, however, is like standing on the tip of an iceberg. It is only the end result of a long process of laying a foundation. Now that I look back, the struggle seems more real than the accomplishment itself.

These were two of the hardest races of my life, and even though they were full of hard work and suffering, I want nothing more than to go back and race again. The racers in Holland, although incredibly tough athletes, were very gracious and supportive of my victories. They race, after all, for the love of the sport. It's their attitude that sets them apart from other skaters. They exhibit impeccable sportsmanship and a true desire to make the races as exciting as possible for the public. That means lots of breakaways.

The long and windy road to notching victories can never be reached if you don't gather up enough mental strength (some call it intestinal fortitude) to cope with breakaways. If you're in good enough shape to always be where the action is, you're bound to succeed eventually. But that's only half the battle. Mental conditioning also plays a deciding factor in the outcome of races, and by training your mind, you can bump your skating up to its highest level. Here are a few tips for improving your chances when involved in a breakaway situation.

Don't hold back. Attack, attack, attack. Skate every breakaway attempt as if it were your first, your last, the only breakaway of your life. If you only make a half-hearted effort at trying to stay away, the pack will catch up at a leisurely pace while you slowly tire out, then pass you as if you were standing still. If you give every break your all, chances are that even if you are caught, your pursuers are also tired. That makes it easier to counterattack or hop on as they go by.

Capitalize on pack indecision. Frequently people in a pack are worried about conserving their energy for the final spurt and not willing to contribute to the effort of the chase. If you are on a break, the harder you skate, the more indecisive the pack becomes about who's going to have to do the work to catch up. Because the stop-and-go skating of a pack is frequently slower than an individual or a group that's plugging along at a steady pace, the chances of your breakaway succeeding are good. If people stand up, you go.

Grin and bear it (my mom says "suffer in silence"). If you broadcast how tired you are, a feeding frenzy will take place and you'll be chewed up and spit out. Smile instead of grimacing in pain, lest your competitors sense your weakness and drop you mercilessly. One telltale sign of being really tired is a blank face, like the "uh-oh" look of a cross-eyed baby pooing in his diapers. You can also gauge someone's strength by how talkative they are. If you try to engage them in conversation, and they either don't respond or talk back in one or two word grunts, you know they're hurtin' and it's probably time to attack.

Offer encouragement to your break-mates. The success of a break always depends on its chemistry, and if you have somebody who's just along for the ride, the break can be doomed. Mutual cooperation is the name of the game before the finish draws near. If you are verbally supportive of the people with you, you increase the chance that the break will stick, because your break companions will put in their fair share of work as well.

Do look back. You need to know where your chasers are, so you know how hard you have to skate to stay away. If I'm being pursued by an individual, I look back a lot to make sure he's still breaking his own wind. If I see the gap closing, I punch it a little harder. If you can keep the gap yawning, soon enough your competitor will explode to kingdom come.

Be mentally strong. Even if you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, always race for 1st place. The minute you settle for anything but a win, you've basically given up, and it becomes too easy to do it again next time. When I got off on a three man break in Holland, I was so tired I told myself "cool, I've at least got third place." Then I realized what a cop-out that was, and told myself I was going to skate hard and win. I did. Never give in. Never settle in your head for anything less than 1st place. When you don't win, throw up your hands and tell yourself you'll get it next time.

Have a gambler's mentality. Although there are always favorites in a breakaway, the outcome of races these days is more like a crap shoot than anything else. That's why you have to take your chances and lay it all out on the line when you're on a breakaway. The more you gamble the better your odds of winning become.